Old NC 105 - Dispersed Camping

This place has an amazing view there's one more campsite earlier up on the road it has an even better view but this is still an 8 out of 10, it's perfect for a hammock setup it might be a little bit harder if you're trying to put a tent up in here. Clean site.

We stayed on Thursday and Friday night. There is noticeably more traffic on Friday night, but nothing that ran late. We had to pick up trash on our arrival from previous campers so a good reminder to bring gloves a shovel and dig a hole for your poop or pack your poop out! It was a private site with the shade and some sunshine. There are a lot of sites with shade, some small some large. There are some sunny sites. A lot of the sites are very close to the road. Some of them are back further into the woods for more privacy.
We drove a Traverse which doesn’t have super high clearance and it was a steep grade gravel road. There are sites that will require a high clearance vehicle but also plenty of level spots to get in. No disturbances; no animal sightings. No safety concerns. Near trailheads for convenient hiking.

This is a great spot along a mountain ridge. The dirt road goes for about 13 miles. Would recommend a 4x4, but I’ve seen all kinds of vehicles travel the entire road from minivans to Honda accords. There are plenty of spots to choose from. Some have great views of the valley and table top mountain and others are just nooks in the woods. The sites are pretty spread out but there are a few within shouting distance (which could be annoying if the site next to you decides to bring a battery powered Sawzall to cut firewood at 2am). Some sites are right off of the road which could get annoying from all the traffic of people going to the hiking trails nearby. And there are spots tucked away a bit off of the road where you really don’t notice trucks and cars driving by. Awesome place for a weekend getaway! Definitely going to visit again.

P.S. only 4 stars because there are only about 3-5 sites with a great view!

Absolutely beautiful area and one of my new favorite wilderness areas on the east side of the country. I went solo camping for 5 days and stayed at the overlook, got really lucky finding my spot in the middle of the night but nonetheless, I drove the whole road South end to North in my fwd sedan haha and saw plenty of beautiful spots to settle at. Definitely recommend you to come check this out, I met some of the nicest people and another solo traveler that I ended up spending 2 nights with. You definitely wont regret it, and dont worry If you dont have a great car for offroad, I saw alot of reviews about absolutely needing an AWD vehicle with good clearance but I maneuvered my way through the road with my little hyundai. You definitely need to be a confident driver if you do that though. Good luck, hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

Great place for beginners and experienced campers alike. You're gonna need 4x4 or AWD on the dirt road to the campsites especially if the weather is no good but we did just fine and nothing was too intense. There are 13.8mi worth of campsites so plenty of privacy and peace and quiet. Had a lotta fun seeing the stars and sitting by the fire. Wiseman's View is stunning and yes we did see the brown mountain lights well worth the trip.

It was a lot of fun and beautiful scenery

If you take your time and they are available there are a few spots on both sides of the road with wonderful views the begging of the road from either side is easy enough to get down but in the middle it gets really rough would not recommend driving all the way through with out an SUV or better clearance and 4 wheel drive the road got worse while I was there from the rain biggest con for me is I use a pump filter to fill up water no camp sight that I could find had access to the river that runs along this road so make sure to bring plenty of bottled water and the road has a lot of traffic at-least one person a day has stopped to ask me questions while I was laying in my hammock

Found a great spot a few miles up the rutted road, with superb views over the gorge. Camped right at the side of the road.

Relatively easy gravel road with sites along either side. Some sites are better than others and offer good views of the surrounding mountains down to lake James. Don’t expect much in the way of accommodations so come prepared, and be aware that most spots are not level, so bring leveling blocks if you are planning on sleeping in your vehicle.

All sites are primitive camping but the views are incredible and the trip to get there is part of the fun!

Drove up to the exact coordinate and the two camping spots are fully blocked off by boulders. If you’re camping In a tent you should be able To drive in just enough to get your car off the road but you’ll have to walk past the boulders to camp in a tent/hammock.

Definitely no car camping. :(and

This was our first stop on our first trip to North Carolina and now we don’t want to leave! We drove the entire road between Lake James and Linville Falls and there are tons of good spots for boondocking and hiking. About 5 camping spots along the road have breathtaking views of the surrounding mountains, hills and valleys. Those spots are obviously the first to go, so come early or on a weekday for those. Otherwise, there are a ton of other great spots. The road itself is all dirt and gravel and can get a little rough. It’s much easier with a 4WD vehicle, but we saw sedans and minivans driving it.

This is a good route as long as you have ok clearance, no issues in a ford transit with all terrain tires and AWD

Make sure you just love nature because that's all that's around you we love this place

We drove pretty far in from the start thinking maybe not so many people would be there but we were wrong. The views in some areas are great but not that many good camping sites with good views. The birds in the early morning were beautiful though. Would probably be great for car camping but for rent camping it wasn’t amazing. The car traffic is horrible, even in the middle of the night. Even until 4am we could hear and see car driving up and down this terribly bumpy gravel road. One car even yelled at us telling us there was a bear just to be funny and scare us. Probably won’t be coming back here. It seemed like a beautiful place to spend the weekend but couldn’t find a really good view, very little privacy, and the people were just rude.

The view from on top of the mountain is easily 10/10. But if you're a big rig like us (we're about 35ft long) the gravel road to get up to the camping spots is virtually not safe. We made it just before the other sites I believe, couldn't get much further without our stuff inside going everywhere even more. They're mainly pull offs where you park and if you want to you can tent camp into the forest more. Still though being able to see the sun rise and set over the mountains and the view of the lake was gorgeous.

The site is right next to the road near a former burn area, so there's a clearing between the site and the lake. A lot of people just stop and walk right through my camp to get a better view, only a few of them even apologizing and even fewer asking permission. But tthe view from this site is better than from most.

There are campsites located all along the road. Once you find one that you like, pull over and set up camp for the night. Campsites are marked by a firepit. I recommend bringing a bag or two of your own firewood. It rained for us and was very foggy, but once morning came we got a great view of a gorgeous sunrise. Don't be discouraged by the gravel road. It is pretty washed out in some areas but if you have a good vehicle and are careful, it should be no problem. Don't settle on a campsite tucked away in the woods (unless that is what you want); there are plenty of sites with a view if you go far enough. We had about a dozen other vehicles drive past us after we were set up. So, there are other campers in the area. However, they are spread far enough out that you don't even know that they are there. Great views while camping on this ridgeline.

Nice, clean, open lots with beautiful views. We had decent cell service.

There are so many sites tucked along this dirt road and some incredible views! I spent almost 14 days here and almost didn't want to leave! The dirt road must've been regraded in the past year as it is easily drivable. I stayed in several sites further up the road and they're all good options! There is traffic, but not much. I have 5G service on both Verizon and Sprint/Tmobile (Verizon has a better signal). Lake James State Park has water at the picnic shelters. The water pump at the Catawba River entrance allows you to connect a hose to it while the Paddy Creek is better for using containers. I'm not confident it's potable water though there's no sign saying it's not. I was using jugs at Paddy Creek and noticed tiny things in the water. Went to Catawba and didn't find anything in the water, but filtered it to be safe.

Needed a spot to stop at off the Blue Ridge Parkway and this did the job. There's no signs that this is a campsite at all other than the fire pits, but the sites were tucked away and you could pull your car right up to them. Some pretty great views off the mountains too and the site was really quite with very few cars passing by.

You have to travel at least 3.5mi on a dirt road (if you're coming from the south) which can be annoying, but the sites are visible from the road. It looked like there were at least 2, not sure if there's more if you go further up the road. Didn't want to try it with my sedan.

I have stayed here many times both in an overlander and on a motorcycle. Usually there are plenty of spots available along the road but summer weekends can be full. Its great if you need a spot to pull over and crash.

Headed up the road from Lake James to find this stunning view down into the gorge from our site.

Technically, the GPS coordinates for this site will take you a little further up the road. But this was one of the first pullouts available.

There were tons of sites all along this road continuing north all the way to the Blue Ridge Parkway near Linville Falls.

Happened upon this campsite not long after starting up the “105” fro the south. At only 2575’ it’s not high but the view is spectacular. Plenty of room for a couple of tents. Wouldn’t try with a RV though.